Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae Volume 36 Number 1, May 2010http://hdl.handle.net/10500/42082015-03-03T20:46:18Z2015-03-03T20:46:18ZNorwegian missionaries and Zulu converts : a case for Bakhtinian dialogueRoaldset, Hegehttp://hdl.handle.net/10500/45892014-04-23T17:06:33Z2010-01-01T00:00:00ZNorwegian missionaries and Zulu converts : a case for Bakhtinian dialogue
Roaldset, Hege
From the arrival of the missionaries in 1844 to the outbreak of
the Anglo-Zulu war in 1879, the results of the Norwegian
missionary enterprise in Zululand were meagre. The British
annexation of Zululand changed the situation, and the
missionaries perceived the first decades of the 20th century as
“a long great harvest”. A closer examination of the source
material challenges this understanding. By using dialogical
theory, as propounded by Mikhail M. Bakhtin, as a starting
point, we may come closer to explaining the missionaries’
relative lack of success. Bakhtin stated that each utterance has
an addressee and that the speaker formulates the utterance with
the addressee and his/her future reactions in mind. If we
envisage the encounter between Zulus and Norwegians
accordingly, we find that the Norwegian missionaries failed to
recognise that the two cultures were engaged in ongoing
dialogue and negotiations.
Peer reviewed
2010-01-01T00:00:00ZRace, politics and religion : the first Catholic mission in Zululand (1895-1907)Denis, Philippehttp://hdl.handle.net/10500/45882014-04-23T17:06:33Z2010-01-01T00:00:00ZRace, politics and religion : the first Catholic mission in Zululand (1895-1907)
Denis, Philippe
This paper explores the strategies deployed by the Catholic
authorities in the late 19th century to gain access to Zululand,
their approach to race relations and their relationship to the
colonial enterprise in general. The first Catholic mission in
Zululand was established in 1895 through a remarkable
conjunction of events: the intervention of an ecclesiastical visitator,
the decision made by John Dunn, the “white chief”, on
his death bed to entrust the education of his children to the
Catholic Church and Bishop Jolivet’s friendship with the
British resident commissioner. The Catholic missionaries
empathised with the Zulu culture, but remained imbued with
colonial prejudices. They treated the first black Oblate and the
first black priest in a discriminatory manner.
Peer reviewed
2010-01-01T00:00:00ZAbandoned ideals of brotherhood? A masculinity perspective on the relationship between 19th century Norwegian Missionaries and Zulu PastorsTjelle, Kristin Fjeldehttp://hdl.handle.net/10500/45732014-04-23T17:13:57Z2010-01-01T00:00:00ZAbandoned ideals of brotherhood? A masculinity perspective on the relationship between 19th century Norwegian Missionaries and Zulu Pastors
Tjelle, Kristin Fjelde
The Lutheran Norwegian Missionary Society (NMS) sent in 1844 its first missionaries to
the Zulus. The NMS’ goal was to establish native churches which become
self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating. This “three-self” formula was to be
accomplished by winning individual souls to Christianity, organising them into churches
and providing them with trained, indigenous ministry. Baleni kaNdlela Mthimkhulu was
the first Zulu pastor to be ordained in NMS in 1893. The paper asks why it took so long
for NMS missionaries to fulfil their original objective of recruiting, educating and
ordaining indigenous church personnel. Furthermore, why were the Zulu pastors after
ordination still treated as the missionaries’ subordinates? The questions are discussed
from a masculinity perspective. The paper argues that internal church relations between
these groups of men were influenced by external political and societal power relations
where white masculinity had hegemony. The Norwegian missionaries’ ambivalent
understanding of the Zulu man reflected common colonial discourses, where Zulu men
on one hand were portrayed as physical strong and well-gifted men with rich potential,
on the other hand as unstable, emotional and childish men.
Peer reviewed
2010-01-01T00:00:00ZA broken land and a healing community : Zulu Zionism and healing in the case of George Khambule (1884-1949)Draper, Jonathan A.http://hdl.handle.net/10500/45712014-04-23T17:06:34Z2010-01-01T00:00:00ZA broken land and a healing community : Zulu Zionism and healing in the case of George Khambule (1884-1949)
Draper, Jonathan A.
The destruction of the Zulu Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century, the Bambatha
Rebellion, the First World War and Spanish Influenza in the Twentieth Century
destabilised Zulu culture, created widespread death and suffering, and also led to a
longing for healing among the Zulu people. George Khambule's experience in Nquthu
and the Western Front, together with his near death experience from Influenza resulted in
his call to become a prophet and his foundation of iBandla Labancwele in 1918. His
healing practice is analyzed and compared with the contemporary healing practice of
Charles Johnson at St. Augustine's Mission, Nquthu, as competitive cultural and social
phenomena.
Peer reviewed
2010-01-01T00:00:00Z